Scripture For Today: Galatians 2:1-21
“And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation.”
Galatians 2:13
While serving in the United States Army I was providing logistical support to a series of convoys from Fort Ord, California to the Oakland Army Depot to prepare to deploy overseas. Our course was simple, straight up Interstate 101, across the Bay Bridge, and into Oakland Army Depot. At the height of rush hour on the second day a radio call came from a new Lieutenant that he needed help. We soon found that he had taken a wrong turn and instead of being at the Army Depot, he was stuck at an intersection in downtown San Francisco trying to turn a convoy around and causing a major traffic jam. When all was said and done the cause of all the difficulty was off course leadership. The maps were good, the radios were working, the soldiers were following. The leader was off course, and many paid the price of frustration that day. Christian, remember that someone is following you as you live your life for Christ, and where you lead they will go!
Your living is your leading!
Peter had been the first to take the gospel to the gentiles and had been clearly taught by God that salvation was through faith in Jesus Christ alone and not through the keeping of the ceremonial and dietary laws of the Jews. Peter stood for that truth when in the counsel at Jerusalem and at the beginning of his visit to Antioch when he lived as one with these gentile believers. When some of the Jewish Christians from Jerusalem came to visit, Peter turned his back on these gentile believers and began to treat them as unclean before God because of the laws of the Jews that Christ had fulfilled. He acted the opposite of what he professed to believe and how he had lived that belief just days before. He was guilty of the sin of hypocrisy. But his sin was like all sins was not only going to have an effect on himself, his sin of hypocrisy caused many who were influenced by him to sin as well, including faithful Barnabas. Peter’s failed spiritual leadership caused many to be led into a spiritual traffic Jam, and the progress of the gospel in Antioch halted until it could be straightened out.
Dear Christian, be careful where you lead. Your living is your leading. What people see and hear from your life they will do. Your spiritual failure is also your leadership failure. Your family needs you, your church needs you, your community, and your nation need you to watch where you are leading by minding your living for Jesus Christ our Lord.